H5N1

World Bank earmarks $11 million for Cambodia

Via Xinhuanet: WB plans project to manage possible outbreak of bird flu in Cambodia.

The World Bank (WB) is planning a project of 11 million U.S. dollars to manage possible future outbreaks of bird flu in Cambodia, local media on Tuesday quoted a WB document as saying.

The project is prepared in consideration of the kingdom's particular
vulnerability to the epidemic, as it is situated between Thailand and Vietnam,
where large quantities of poultry are produced and some of the worst outbreaks
of bird flu have occurred, reported the Cambodian Daily.

The funds are divided into four components: animal health, human health,
education and government capacity building, said the document.

The main implementing agencies are the United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization, the World Health Organization and the UN Development Program, it
added.

So far, seven Cambodians have died of bird flu.

Indonesia still quarrelling with WHO

Via the Associated Press, a discouraging report: Indonesia says WHO fails to assure bird flu samples will not be used commercially. Excerpt:

Indonesia's health minister has accused the World Health Organization of breaking its promise to assure that the country's bird flu samples would not be used commercially, dragging out a dispute about equal access to a future vaccine.

Siti Fadilah Supari said late Monday Indonesia was ready to resume the supply of specimens, but had postponed doing so after recent talks in Geneva with the world body on technical details "ended in deadlock."

"I am afraid to send (the samples) because we have not seen WHO's commitment assuring not to hurt us," Supari told The Associated Press.

Health officials from the nation hardest hit by bird flu say it's unfair for the WHO to simply hand over their H5N1 viruses to drug companies, arguing any vaccine produced from their specimens would likely be too expensive for the poor.

"The WHO did not show any good will," Supari said. "We are disappointed. They do whatever suits them."

Here is the story as reported in the Jakarta Post.

Greger's book get a rave review—where it counts

Dr. Michael Greger is on a roll: he's been giving lectures all over the US about avian flu, and now his book Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching has received a glowing review in none other than Virology Journal.

You can read the book, free, just by clicking on the link to it in the H5N1 Special Reports list, and you can play a video of his lecture available in the H5N1 Audio-Video Files—both in the right-hand column, fairly far down.

Tracking bird flu by satellite

I missed this excellent article in FT.com when it appeared on April 21: Swan song of my own discusses the role of migratory birds in carrying H5N1, and it has some interesting points. Excerpt:

To try and get a better understanding of the issue, scientists funded by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation have begun using satellite monitoring to follow the movements of migratory birds with unprecedented accuracy.

Recently, particular attention had focused on Africa where data on bird movements are scarce despite the fact that some five million ducks from Eurasia winter in sub-Saharan Africa.

In February, researchers from a French international development centre, Cirad, fitted lightweight transmitters to 45 birds from three species: the blue-winged teal, the fulvous whistling duck and the comb duck. The scientists caught their birds from three crucial parts of the continent: northern Nigeria, the inland delta of the Niger River in Mali - the biggest wintering site for Eurasian ducks in Africa -and Malawi.

Each of the birds they trapped has now had a small transmitter strapped to its back with Teflon straps. As they fly around the continent, those transmitters send signals that are picked up by satellites orbiting at a height of 850km and relayed back to earth.

It’s possible to monitor the movement of the tagged birds almost day by day, courtesy of maps on the Cirad website, or through Google Maps. I’ve been looking at their movements in the few weeks they’ve been on the satellite, and while it’s fascinating watching, it’s hard to see any pattern at all. Some of the birds don’t seem to have flown anywhere while others have traversed huge distances.

The African study follows a series of other projects monitoring bird migration using satellite data. One team, for example, fitted out a group of whooper swans on Mongolia’s far eastern grassland steppe with transmitters last August.

On the United States Geological Survey website, you can see the movements of three of those swans, which have flown down from Mongolia to China and Korea.All in all, scientists now think wild birds aren’t the main culprits behind the spread of avian influenza.

I've added links to Cidar and the USGA in the H5N1 Technical Sources list.

Russia: Wild ducks in Altai carry H5N1 antibodies

Via Itar-Tass: Antibodies to bird flu found in wild ducks in Altai region.

Wild ducks in three areas of Russia’s Altai region were found to have antibodies to bird flu, sources from the regional veterinary department told Tass on Friday.

“This means that the birds have contacted with ill species or have been ill” with bird flu themselves, they stressed. Monitoring of water fowl began last week, and antibodies to bird flu have been found in the blood of wild ducks on the Korostylyovskoye water reservoir, on the Novoye and Presnoye lakes, they specified.

The sources said the situation in private households remains normal, but nevertheless owners of domestic poultry were asked to keep the birds inside.

Meanwhile, vaccination against the H5N1 strain of bird flu continues in the region. About one million domestic birds have been vaccinated. Domestic birds in thirty-seven districts of the region situated on migratory birds routes are vaccinated first.

Kenya: The high cost of fighting flu

Via allAfrica.com: Kenya: Threat of Bird Flu And Livestock Diseases Cost Economy Sh5bn. Excerpt:

The threat of livestock diseases such as bird flu has cost the economy more than Sh5 billion[USD $73.6 million].

The permanent secretary for the ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development, Dr Jacob ole Miaron, said during the weekend, that last year's bird flu threat cost the economy Sh2 billion. This was because the threat persisted for several months, he added.

Speaking during the closing of the annual scientific conference for the country's veterinarians in Eldoret, the PS said foot and mouth and East Coast fever caused the economy Sh1 billion and Sh900 million respectively.

Dr Miaron said the loss occasioned on the country by Rift Valley Fever was not yet known, but added it would be enormous.

Nigeria: Commissioner cautions on bird flu

Visit allAfrica.com's health reports, and you'll see that the continent has far more to worry about than H5N1. But it's still a concern, as this story indicates: Nigeria: Commissioner Cautions on Bird Flu. Excerpt:

Sokoto State Commissioner for Forestry and Animal Health, Dr. Abdulkadir Usman Junaidu has called for efficient meat and other poultry product inspection in the country's abattoir, slaughter houses and slabs by veterinary doctors to curtail Avian Influenza and other animal diseases in the land.

He spoke weekend in Sokoto at a forum to mark the World Veterinary Day Celebration organised by the Sokoto State chapter of the Nigerian Veterinary Medical Association held at the Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto.

While noting that there were over 590 diseases of public health concern recognised as zoonoses, Junaidu challenged the vet doctors that it was their duty to ensure proper disposal of wastes and carcasses that are detrimental to health and the environment to prevent human being from animal disease infection.

'Supermap' of avian flu yields new info

Via PhysOrg.com: 'Supermap' of avian flu yields new info on source, spread. Excerpt:

A team of biomedical experts, led by Daniel Janies, an assistant professor in the department of biomedical informatics, used special software to create an evolutionary tree of the virus's mutations.

They used Keyhole Markup Language in Google Earth to project the tree onto the globe and then chose colors and symbols to indicate different hosts that carry the virus and where they live. TimeSpan, another function in Google Earth, allowed them to animate the spread of the virus over the past decade.

The map is chock-full of additional information. Clicking on a specific viral subtype generates a popup window revealing diagnostic mutations that distinguish one strain of the virus from another, and all of the data is linked to the National Institute of Health's GenBank.

"The map gives us a whole new way of seeing the virus in action and understanding what it is – and isn't – doing," says Janies. "It's enabled us to compare findings about viruses in the real world against pre-existing hypotheses about the spread of H5N1 that come from laboratory studies."

The study appears online this week in the April issue of Systematic Biology.

You can access the Google Earth files here, but the report itself appears to be subscriber-only.

Memories of 1918

Via the Associated Press, a North Dakota story with some lessons for us: 101-year-old recalls 1918 flu epidemic. Excerpt:

Although just 12 years old, young Thelma Trom had two unique vantage points from which to watch the epidemic as it swept through Hatton and the surrounding countryside that October and November.

She rode along with the local doctor, a neighbor from across the street, when he made house calls in a horse-drawn sleigh.

"He was so exhausted he would lots of times fall asleep," recalled Trom, still vigorous at the age of 101.

And stored inside the long garage behind her undertaker uncle's house next door, where the horse-drawn hearse normally was kept, were the coffins of those the doctor couldn't save. The garage once sheltered nine caskets waiting for families to bury their dead.

Dr. Andrew Arthur Kjelland was a one-man medical crisis team. On his rounds, the children stayed outside, covered in furs to stay warm. They often drove the horses in circles to keep them warm.

"We never went in the residences," said Trom. "He didn't want us to get sick. I can't remember that I was frightened at all. I just felt it was a duty."

The doctor prescribed hot lemonade to soothe his patients' throats, and goose grease to be rubbed on their chests.

"The main thing was to loosen up the phlegm," she said. Some flu patients contracted pneumonia. Others developed pleurisy, an inflammation of the lining around the lungs.

"Coughing was really painful," she said. "I don't know what the doctor gave them for cough medicine."

Many of those who died were young adults. "Especially the pregnant women, they had no chance," she said.

One of Trom's aunts, who was pregnant, became one of the first victims of the flu in Hatton. She likely caught it from a sick friend who had come home from the University of North Dakota, which had shut down.

Hong Kong enforces "poultry rest" days

I missed this when it came out last week on the Hong Kong government health-news page, but it's an interesting concept: April 25 next poultry rest day.

The Food & Environmental Hygiene Department reminds poultry stall operators and the public that the next poultry rest day falls on Wednesday.

Operators of market stalls and fresh provision shops selling live poultry must suspend business on the rest day to carry out thorough cleaning and disinfection.

All poultry retailers should strictly observe rest-day conditions and ensure that all live poultry remaining in their stalls or shops are slaughtered before the rest day.

Stall owners and licensees must not remove any unsold live poultry from their premises to avoid slaughtering them before the start of the rest day.

The department will inspect each poultry outlet on the rest day. Failure to comply with the rest-day conditions will lead to immediate cancellation of shop licences or termination of market stall tenancies.